Carryonupthecurry

I intend to travel very light, but in addition to hand luggage I have allowance for two cases up to 23Kg each.  So I have come up with the idea of filling a couple of cases with anything that would be useful for an animal charity.  With the generosity of some people, I quickly filled the cases but have realised that the heavy tins of dog food will make this plan become a challenge. 

Delhi Part One

After a nice early arrival at the airport, I enjoyed the lovely peace of a gin and tonic (or two, it was a long wait) before heading for the departure gate.
I handed over my ticket to enjoy the prievelige of stepping into the plane's departure gate which was a land of pure chaos and noise. I'm prepared for this, and I think this is how it will be for a long time!
Why watch a rugby scrum when you can watch people board this flight? This is going to be a fun few days!
For the flight I was seated between two Indian chaos who had lived in England for many years. They were very good fun, and told me of their disappointment when I turned up after hoping for a nice young lady.
After collecting my two huge heavy cases, everything went to plan as I got some cash, a local sim card and jumped in a taxi. The airport was surprisingly quiet. After my half hour drive where I just managed to stay awake, I got to the animal charity under the flyover.
I found their office and handed over two very full cases of collars, leads, food, blankets, towels, treatments and so much more. Big thanks to those who gave me the donations. The centre has a couple of operating rooms, and some big areas with cages where they were treating mainly cats and dogs. There were lots of bandages going on, and lots of sad animals.
I left the charity and walked down the road to a very nice metro. The charity guy suggested I go to Old Fort.
When I arrived at my stop I tried walking along a quiet road with a gate, xray machine and guard on the pavement. He called me back and asked to see my invitation, he was security for an international food show.
I shrugged and was about to walk the other way when someone else came out, huffed about then gave me the invitation card and insisted I went through. I thought it might be worth investigating because I needed the toilet. After a short walk I found myself within a complex of huge exhibition centres. I went into the Water Development and Management Conference, but when I showed my ticket they threw me out and sent me to another place.
When I arrived there, after a lot of excitement I was sent by security to the reception to collect my official pass. So I went to reception, quietly asked where the toilet was, went there then left before I got into trouble.
I walked quite a long way the The Old Fort, and thought I found a market on the way. I went up some steps, but a chap who has taken a vow of silence pointed at my shoes so I took them off along with my socks, taking comfort in the knowledge that an incense stick his any smelly socks!
I also had to wear a small hat, then went up to find that I was in a Mosque.
After escaping the Mosque, I carried on and eventually found the Old Fort. I had a long walk around, but was pretty tired with no corner to doze due to the mosquitos.
When I left, a tuktuk driver pounced on me and I agreed to be taken to the train station. For some bizarre reason he kept calling his tuktuk a helicopter. Anyway, he went in the wrong direction for ten minutes so it was a long drive. As well as cars in the rush hour traffic there were tuk tuks, motorbikes, horses and cows. I noticed one tuktuk had a boy sitting at the back, with his legs dangling out. I expect there would be Heath and Safety issues in the UK with the use of small children as bumpers.
I got dropped off at the main Delhi train station, where the chaos highlighted the peace of the Old Fort area.
I found a Tatty cafe and had some jalfrezi and pretty horrible tea, then worked out how to kill three hours.

This is where it started to go wrong. Three hours had already turned into five hours because the train was over two hours delayed.

Now, I had almost no sleep last night, so to cut a long story short I said to Mr Bureaucrat, "the help desk helped by sending me to you and then you sent me to that man who sent me to another man who sent me to you and you sent me to that man who I have asked to come to you so that you can sort this. Please transfer my train ticket to the 8.05 train to Varanasi (he had already said that there were no other trains to Varanasi, but I was smart enough to know that the other station in Varanasi is Baranas). I understand that I can only cancel my other ticket if it's more than four hours, but the train is delayed which makes it more than four hours now. Well, not any more because you sent me to all these different booths."

He gave me a form to complete and then said I can't have a refund, so I went away and decided to buy a ticket through my phone, which didn't work.

So I went back to Mr Bureaucrat and asked for the ticket. He made me fill in a form again, then asked me to pay. I handed him a debit card, he shook his head. I handed him two other cards, he shook his head each time. Eventually he said "cash only". He could have said it straight away.

I got on the train and found I was sharing the sleeper compartment with a sulky chap who was obviously expecting to have the room to himself. I don't care, I just need to sleep zzzzzzz.  Fit bit says I made 19,000 steps but doesn't say that it was with a heavy rucksack.

Varanasi

The power ran out in my phone so I didn't know what time it was, or when we would arrive at Varanasi. Suddenly we were there while I was still in bed so I very quickly got everything together, and managed to get off the train before it didn't go on to the next stop, I was at the end of the line.

I fought past the tuk tuk drivers and sat by a lake with a couple of yoga lessons taking place behind me, then I went to the quieter tuk tuk area and jumped in an electric tuk tuk. It was more like a converted bake bean tin and every time he hit a bump I hit my head and probably dented the roof. How would a tall person cope?

He got as far as he was prepared to go then left me to fight through the crowds to find my hotel. The traffic is so bad and the population so dense, that it is quicker to walk but the pavements have rubble, holes and street sellers so it is difficult to get anywhere fast. I think the locals walk in 4 wheel drive flip-flops.

As I got nearer to the River Ganges, the crowd became more spiritual with lots of heads being shaved, and all sorts of other preparations. I found a part of the river and watched as people bathed and carried out their own personal rituals in the heat

of 7.30am.

I found that a quick right turn took me into a series of quiet alleyways, escaping the crowds. I found one quiet area where a lady was sitting on the steps to the river, with three people nearby partly in the river. She handed me a plate with jasmine flowers and a little candle and persuaded me to launch it in the river where it drifted towards the three people who panicked slightly as the naked flame was on a fast route towards the sari. I think I might have ruined a spritual moment.

I found my hotel among the alleyways. "No problem with you being early, you can go to your room and freshen up with a nice shower" is what they didn't say. I had to wait four hours but at least I could leave my heavy rucksack there.

I set off amongst the chaos of the small backstreets. There was a lot going on, with me being a magnet for beggars and all sorts of other people. There were holymen, a funeral procession, cows, a man with his pet cobra (why would anyone have that, I took a wide berth) and children wanting to put red powder on me and general mad chaos. It was easy to turn a corner and suddenly be in a very quiet alleyway, then next minute the alleyway turns into a busy street with people, cars, mopeds and bikes busy getting nowhere fast. The way to deal with this is to dip in then dip out of the chaos and find a cool cafe.

The steps to the river are called Ghats. I chose my hotel because it is on Meer Ghat. Simples. The hotel has a very good view of people spiritually cleansing and physically doing the opposite in the Ganges.

In the late afternoon I joined a walking tour with a Spanish chap and his Italian wife. We visited various sites that I'd already been to, but it was nice to have the explanations and protection against the sales pitches. I also got introduced to a shady character who exchanged money. I'm not sure that it was a good idea to use him. At one point we stopped to have some street food. Best samosas ever at 10 pence! I'll be having more of those as I got along. When the tour ended, I had a nice meal with the Spanish/Italian couple then worked my way back to the hotel through the alleyways without getting lost for the first time.

Fitbit steps = 20,000

Wow. I slept well. Just as well, there's a long leg ahead. By 11.00am I'd showered, eaten and checked out, all prepared for the next part of the journey until shower and hotel time. The hotel agreed to look after my heavy rucksack, leaving me free to have another day of chaotic exploring. Within minutes of leaving the airconditioned room I was sweating in the humid heat, enjoying a hot ginger honey lemon tea. I feel this is better purification for me than dunking myself into the polluted Ganges. I may be in the minority here with that thought, but it's not always good to follow the crowds!
I felt I had seen all there was to see in Varanasi, so to kill time I wandered aimlessly around the backstreets. Sometimes I was in quiet residential areas, then suddenly I was in incredibly crowded streets with an explosion of colour, smells (good and bad), and plenty of sound as everyone drove with their horns. After a few hours of this I headed back, picked up my rucksack from the hotel then made the twenty minute walk to a point where bikes went faster than walking. I was enticed by a chap who said he had an electric tuktuk and then got me into his mate's bike rickshaw. Well, it was hard work for him in the heat and quite terrifying in the traffic (often oncoming). I told him he was going the wrong way but he said something that didn't make sense, and eventually dropped me off 1km to the north of where I wanted. He sorted out a lift for 50 rupees in a shared tuktuk, charged me 50 rupees too much and disappeared. The chap in the back of the tuk tuk was holding a gun pointing at my knee, I think he was an army chap. I was okay as long as there wasn't a combination of 1) bullets in the gun 2) safety catch not on 3) we hit a bump.
Anyway, I got to the train station with legs in tact, and had a wander around the local area for a nice cafe or restaurant. There weren't any. I took the risk of buying some food from the platform cafe, and then went to the VIP waiting room for a few hours to relax and read. After a while I thought I'd venture out and found a restaurant. It was a bit expensive and when the waiter put some sliced onions on the plate with his bare hands, I wished I wasn't there!
Anyway, I ventured on to the platform where the train was waiting early, and I got set up in my bunk before everyone else arrived. I made the classic mistake when I came back from checking where the toilets were of climbing into the wrong bunk. The chap said saw the funny side. Eventually.
Tomorrow I should wake up in Agra.

Fitbit steps 21,000

Agra

So far I've travelled 530 miles + 390 miles on trains, total 920 miles. I had Mr Gumpy on the bunk under me. Every ten minutes, a chaiwallah or waterseller would will past saying "chai chai chai" or whatever. It was 10.00pm so Mr Grumpy would start an argument with each one, presumably loudly saying that he was too noisy.

Then the train guard came along, turned the light on and we had more heated words. Ironic, really.
The next morning I worked out that the train was running three hours late (so far) so my 7.30am arrival at Agra was eventually 11.00am. Time to chill in my air condition bunk and watch the world go by.

I stepped off the train and passed another where horror and fear struck. I passed the third class compartments, this is what I've got for the next couple of trips. Even as I walked along the platform, the hoards of desperate tuktuk drivers arrived. One was annoyingly persistent. After getting some rice with an incredibly hot gravy sauce, i ate as much as I could then found a nice tuktuk driver. I got into his tuktuk but the persistent tuktuk driver came up and they had a heated argument, almost coming to blows. I thought I'd join in, and shouted at the persistent one that he had no right to stop my ride, then I threatened to get out but suddenly he left, problem solved.

There are official guides at Agra, and an older chap approached, sorted things then produced another guide who showed me the building. Security is very thorough, you can't even bring in food so I had my nuts removed. While The Taj Mahal is beautiful and ornate, there's nothing in it apart from a couple of tombs. But I expect a UK estate agent could give it a more glowing description.
After my tour, my guide confessed to telling me this was his first ever tour. I laughed, having asked him about the best and worst countries he'd had for tourists. I told him he had a good future as a guide, picked up my rucksack from the locker then went on a wander.

After a stroll through a park path, I came across some street stalls and lots of smoke. I walked further on and thought I'd find the river, but saw the source of the smoke. It was forva funeral and there were a few others nearby being prepared. Plus a body wrapped in ornate cloth. Not for the first time recently, I made a hasty retreat to leave them to have their funerals.

Agra Fort is between the train station and The Taj Mahal. I decided to catch the metro there. Someone told me that I should get off at the second stop but sold me a ticket to the first stop only. In beurocratic style I was told to catch a train back to the first stop. In the end they agreed that I could pay the extra to get out at the stop I was at. It was an extra 5 rupees (5pence) so I gave him a 50 rupee note to be awkward. They had the last laugh, I was at the wrong stop after all.

Agra Fort seemed huge, hot and exhausting so I decided to store that tour for another day after standing at the entrance, watching the crowds for a while.

After a tuktuk back to the station nice and early, I had a bottle of coke. A minute after finish it, a monkey came and pinched it. He removed the lid, found nothing there and didn't even put it in the bin.

This is where I've probably immersed myself a bit too far into the Indian culture. After a dodgy train station meal, I went to the loo and as I left, the toilet attendant invited me to sit with him. After all, it was only for five minutes.thisvturned into thirty minutes following the train being delayed, with no announcement until after arrival time. So I was stuck outside the smelly toilet, but I had a nice chat and laugh with the toilet attendant, and I feel my job as Indian assistant toilet attendant would make me stand out from others on my CV.

The train came in and I hopped into the third class carriage. This is clearly the vibrant class with lots of chatting. Mind you, before the train left I spotted two cockroaches. The Rob who booked this journey for a laugh has a lot of explaining to do to the current Rob. I've got this for a out five hours.
Something more terrifying than cockroaches happened. A toddler was given a chocolate bar, twelve inches from my knee and left unattended. In 35 degree heat. By some miracle, the chocolately message never reached me. I expect you wonder how I cope. I just switch off and read a book while chaos surrounds me.

So that's 920 miles plus 150 miles = 1070 miles.
In the end, the family were very nice and we exchanged a few words (but not many due to the language barrier). I smartly booked my hotel close to the station and, with difficulty shaking off a tuktuk driver who followed me from train up to check-in, I got into my 1970's theme room and fell quickly asleep.

16,000 Fitbit steps

Agra

After breakfast I went out to meet my guide for a two hour tour. I wasn't feeling too great so I asked the hotel if I could extend my stay until 3.00pm which they said was fine. I left the hotel, fought through the tuktuk drivers and found the new metro which got me across the town for 12 rupees. I met the guide, walked a lot in the heat and was given a lot of information, none really stuck because of the chap's accent and my tiredness. I really just wanted a cool drink so I ended the tour a bit early and headed to a nice cafe with a good view of Hawa Mahal, a pretty pink building which was out of place amongst the other shops and buildings in the street.

Before going back to the hotel I thought I'd just pop in and upgrade my train ticket for tonight, otherwise it's a thirteen hour third class sleeper. After an hour involving queuing at five different places with no aircon and filling in a form, the lady behind the counter said with a beurocratic smile that first and second class were fully booked. This gave me one hour to have a rest before my epic trip.

When I left the hotel, they wanted to charge double because I stayed an extra couple of hours. Tactful discussions resulted in them realising that they should have said if there was a charge to stay longer.

I stopped at a run down looking cafe for some lovely samosas, got a few more provisions then got on my train.

Indians think trains are tardises. I don't know how they expected to get the entire contents of their houses on this train, but they were giving it a good go. The train was full but the luggage kept coming. Once again I was surrounded by a family, this time about twenty people. The noise was collosal, with everyone competing with their conversations. In no time, the food was being served to add to the smells. The ladies were in one section serving to the men in the next compartment and the children were everywhere. I was sure it would calm down and all be over in thirteen hours.

One of the family members suggested swapping with him, because he was in a quiet berth and he was part of the noisy gang. So at least I got a bit more luxury, nearly reaching one star.

I seemed to have lost my pillow in the swap and the aircon was too cold, but after a poor night's sleep we arrived in Jaisalmer.

Fit bit 21,000 steps

Jaisalmer

We had left Jaipur on time and arrived at Jaisalmer spot on time at 5.00am. well done to the train driver. Having completed another 436 miles (total 1506 miles), I counted the requests from tuktuk drivers between the train and the exit - it was an annoying 14. I spotted a little street food place and had a chai (small tea with marsalla flavour, 10 rupees). An Australian chap struck up a conversation. He was on my carriage and saw how I was surrounded, he felt very sorry for me. This was the first time in three days that I spoke to a non-local.
I needed cash badly so I walked in the dark before dawn, the silence occasionally destroyed by a big lorry passing with the inconsiderate driver blasting his horn for no reason. To make matters worse, the horny tunes lasted ten seconds.
I eventually got to the peace of Jaisalmer Fort after getting cash from the third ATM that I tried, and found a lovely rooftop cafe where I enjoyed some plain egg, toast and coffee as the sun rose. This place is easily the nicest part of India I've been to.

My plan for tonight was to stay in a hostel in the desert. It was approximately 50km away, and the taxis and tuktuk drivers would charge a fortune.

So I went to a man renting motorbikes and scooters, and picked up a scooter for 500 rupees per day. With confidence from my past scooter experience in Vietnam, I jumped on the scooter and whizzed along my merry way. There was only one straight road to the hostel, mainly tarmac but often gravel so I had to be extra careful. After ninety minutes or so I got to the hostel, a lovely place with thatched roof. I'm not too keen on snakes, so I thought I'd stay in the shared dorm tonight where the noise of everyone would scare them off. Also, this is the only place that doesn't put you in a tent. I'd prefer my own room, but the idea of an active dorm meant snakes are more likely to be scared off. How many people are killed by snakes in India each year? Answer to follow tomorrow.

Anyway, my plan backfired in a nice way, I have the dorm to myself. I can tell this area is remote. There's intermittent electricity during the day so long periods without aircon. After a well earned shower I had a snooze.

Feeling refreshed I went to see Sam. Sam is the local town. I came across a streetfood chap with a load of freshly deep fried onion bhajis. As they were freshly cooked they should be safe to eat so he scooped them out with his grubby hands, put them in newspaper and weighed them for me. They were really good so I had some more, then we agreed that I would do his job for him. I sat on his chair and shouted for people to come. Another job for my CV, and a good laugh with the locals. I got back to the hostel then after a while I popped over to the sand dunes to watch the sunset. The sunset was very nice, with the power cuts kicking in and out to light up and darken the background. But there were so many tourists on camels, going 200 yards then back again all for a lot of money. Rather than a desert, it was more like Asda's dessert section on a Saturday afternoon.

I've been lucky enough to have gone on a couple of very good camel rides recently, so I had no intention of doing this or the jeep safari. While this area is a desert, there's only a small part that are sand dunes in the traditional Sahara style. Nevertheless, every other person by the road wanted to stop me for camel ride offers or the same with jeep safaris. After dark, I thought I would drive to Sam but only got half way when the bugs were too much. I kept getting hit by them, at one point I think I must have been hit by a pterodactyl or some similar size bug. That was the time to stop, turn around and head back to the hostel.

Similar to a ride in Sri Lanka once, riding at night is like a computer game. I could only see as far as the headlight shone, and had to avoid things like herds of cows, dogs, oncoming scooters and cars (double points if there were no headlights).

I got back to my room to find the camp next door had some drums and singing, or I think it was more like wailing. A power cut kicked in, yay! Their generator kicked in, boo!

Fitbit steps 19,000. That's clearly wrong!

Next morning I happily overslept so I completely missed the sunrise. I've not really looked around this hostel until now but it really was pleasant. The season starts in a few weeks so it's just me and ten workers, plus a great dane who allegedly is 18. I don't believe that because a) big dogs don't live so long b) this is India where animals don't live as long and c) his teeth are too white.

I went for breakfast but I didn't know what I had ordered. I started with a nice sweet rice style plate with Bombay mix on top, followed by pancake type bread with curd (plain yoghurt) and a bowl of pickles that I was too scared to touch. All washed down with chai. The chai has grown on me. It's a small cup of sweet tea with marsalla powder.

The answer is 50,000 every year. That's the size of a football stadium. That's not bites, that's actual deaths through snakebites. It occurred to me that that would be the explanation for the helicopter landing area outside the hostel. It must be there to quickly get in and out to deal with snake bites and nightime pterodactyl collisions.

After breakfast I had a quick stroll into the desert, then back to my room to pack, shower and leave. The lack of electricity had been upgraded to a lack of water aswell, so it was looking like I would just be smelly when I left. Luckily, the water and electricity came on at leaving time so I had a shower, checked out and went on my merry way with my scooter. 

There is a lot of resurfacing of the road, which adds to the fun.

 The ride was just like being in an arcade game. Road ends, gravel starts. Switch lanes. Watch for oncoming traffic. Watch for goat herd. Dust cloud stops you from seeing anything for fifty yards. Cow in middle lane. Switch back to your side of the road. Oncoming traffic in middle. Pot hole. You get the drift.

I thought I would stop at a dusty cafe for a drink. What could possibly happen? Well, two things actually. 

Firstly, an American popped out of nowhere wearing sunglasses (in case he smiled in a mirror), acted like he was my best long lost friend and told me he had been down to half a litre of water having slept in the desert. He had a tiny rucksack and a Royal Enfield Himalaya motorbike that he swapped for his auto rickshaw, I thought he was action man. After telling me about his 3500 km trip, full of excitement, he put his helmet on with headphones and two-way microphone (but no one to talk to, what was that about?), said that they were noise cancelling so he couldn't hear anything, fist bumped me with his chunky desert gloves and whizzed off. I was a bit concerned, because he whizzed off in the same direction as me so I could bump into him again.

The second strange thing was very strange. I drank my bottle of mango drink sitting among four locals, then when I finished I went up to my scooter. One of the chaps, the old man with a walking stick, followed me. He laid a cloth on my saddle, said "hot" then he sat on the back. It looked like I was giving him a lift to Jaisalmer then. So off we went, me trying not to laugh at this bizarre turn of events that results in double points on the arcade game. All was fine but I thought I'd lost him for a moment when I hit a surprise speed bump. He hung on well. I asked him where he wanted to be dropped off. It was right in the busy part of town. There's a challenge for me. So after unloading him, and a quick handshake, I drove like a local and found my way to the entrance of Jaisalmer Fort. The roads insode the fort are mainly thin alleyways, steep and slippery on marble style stones. So I was battling with the scooter for a while, but I got to the hostel and parked up.

Someone came to me and said that I couldn't park there and he moved my scooter to a better place. He then welcomed me in to a very magical hostel, and asked about my trip. The desert hostel told the guys here that I was coming, they are part of the same chain.

The views are stunning, the atmosphere is great and there are guests here!

I thought that now would be a good time to wash some smelly clothes.

The race was on. Could I get them washed and dried before leaving tomorrow? I turned my lovely private room into a laundrette and chilled at the hostel for the rest of the day, other than taking the scooter back to the hirer. My first obstacle was a cow taking up the entire alleyway but she soon passed.

My room was three times the price of the desert hostel and half the size, but it really was pleasant. The air conditioning was good too, but it's non-existent in most other parts of the hostel. There are lovely seats with cushions everywhere at the edge of the fort overlooking the surrounding town and land in the distance, but the humidity made it difficult to stay out for long.

After watching a pleasant sunset on the edge of the fort (this was still in the hotel) I had something to eat and then slept.

13,000 Fitbit steps, very lazy.

Next morning, I was happy to find all my clothes were dry. I checked out but they had no problem with me staying at the hostel for the day so I relaxed and read in the coolest spots I could find. The other guests are mainly Indian with a few Europeans and an American. Everyone seems to keep themselves to themselves, so I enjoyed the peace.

At 5.00pm I said goodbye to the chap who looked after me, then headed out of the fort, jumped into a tuktuk and went to the train station. Among the people in the waiting room was a cow. I thought she might have been inthere, she left her mark on the floor at the entrance.

Tonight's train is a monster journey. Assuming it's on time, it'll be 15.5 hours to Delhi. I'm in the relative luxury of second class. The air conditioning combined a small unit with a fan screwed to the ceiling which seemed to get the temperature just right.

This train journey was 527 miles making my total train distance 2033 miles of pure railway fun.
After a couple of hours I was fast asleep, with only four hours left when I woke..

Last night's Fitbit count was a lazy 7,000.

I nearly lost a good, loyal and dependable friend this morning, who has helped my through this trip and saved me from difficult situations.  A while after my first venture to the loo, I realised on a second trip that my toilet roll wasn't in my bag. I had left it in the toilet but we had a tearful reunion, it was like Tom Hanks and Wilson the football in Castaway.

This train left Jaisalmer exactly on time, and got to Delhi only twenty minutes late having waited for half an hour just outside the station. For the last couple of hours of the journey, I spent some time talking to two brothers. They explained how seating worked on sleeper trains, and we had a really good chat. As with all conversations of this type, they told me their favourite English cricketer and I politely thanked them, as I awkwardly didn't have a favourite Indian cricketer.

Delhi Part Two

We got off the train, parted company and I headed for the fantastic metro rather than the dirty, crowded, hot, expensive tuk tuks.

In keeping with choosing hostels to stay for their names, I'm staying in a place called Heistel Hostel which sounds German, as opposed to the last couple of places that were called Zostel Hostel. My second favourite was in Bulgaria, called Hostel Mostel. The best was The Phu House in Vietnam.

I've mastered the metro now so I found the Heistel pretty easily. They let me into my room early so I had a shower, relaxed a while then headed off to meet Geeta.

The room looked like it had windows, but the window behind the curtain was blacked out. I opened it, and found myself looking into the reception. Before you ask yourself one question, the answer is no. I was fully clothed.

With skillful use of the metro I arrived at the animal sanctuary and met Geeta, the Vice President. She explained how the charity was set up 45 years ago after the Prime Minister gave the charity a room under the flyover.  They have since rented more space.  They officially have space for 50 to 80 animals, but they actually have 250. They carry out a lot of speying and neutering of cats and dogs to stop the cause of their problems, but she explained how they need four centres in Delhi otherwise the journey to them would typically take ninety minutes each way which restricts their ability to help.

They do fantastic work there, and were very grateful for the donations of collars, leads, bowls, food, etc. Special thanks to The Village vet in Watercolour, Bark Lane in Caterham and south Nutfield Petsitting to name a few.

After our chat I left with my empty cases and dropped them off at Heistel Hostel. Then I went for a walk and meal as it was getting dark. I saw a big rat come out of a cracked pavement, grab a little plate full of food and drag it down another crack. I reckon he was the best rat waiter ever, to bring a plate of food that was half the size of the customers.

Upon returning, I popped up to the rooftop terrace where half a dozen other guests were chatting, drinking, playing pool and eating.they were all Indian, apart from one guy from California who has been here for two years and spoke perfect Hindi.

The atmosphere was very relaxed and they were all very friendly, full of advice for me tomorrow. After all, I have two empty cases and a full day to buy rubbish to fill them. And Christmas is only three months away.

Fitbit steps 18,000, I might get a record tomorrow.

I was up and out onto the metro promptly, and I got to a place where I thought there may be a market. As I left the metro a smartly dressed chap gave me some advice and directed me to another market. He said it would be easier to go by tuk tuk and sorted one for me, he made sure it was at a local price which was much lower than I had been paying.

So he took me to a market which turned out to be a bazaar shop, or more appropriately a tourist trap. I tried not to laugh when I walked into one area where fifteen staff members stood in line, silent. I think they were having a pre work daily talk that I ruined by arriving early. Despite a customer (at least he tried to appear like one) saying how cheap things were, I found that a small packet of tea was £9.00. not surprisingly I suspected something was wrong with this place. Tuk tuk man then took me to another for free (same set up) then to a normal market for a tourist rate he refused to give me change aswell and left too quickly for my liking. I'd been scammed, but not too much money (about £3.00). Sadly, this behaviour seems to come from a lot of tuk tuk drivers I've encountered who, instead of competing with the far cheaper metro by giving a good service, seem to increase their prices through dishonesty and constant hassling. They are destroying their own industry in my view. Metro every time for me from now on.

The metro has a special carriage at the front for angry women. I got on it once, and was told to get out! The truth is that the first carriage is exclusively for ladies, which is a good idea and reduces any feeling of vulnerability.

The market he dropped me off at was not too good so I went by metro to a market recommended by one of the hostel lads.

This market was chaotic and very popular. As soon as I arrived someone tried to sell me an apple watch, he stuck to me like bubblegum on my shoe. Even at £2.00, I wasn't interested.  With my hard bargain hunting coming to an exhausting conclusion, I headed back to the hostel via two "Government appoved wine and beer shops" which had loads of whisky, eight bottles of wine and no beer. I picked up a bottle of wine to share with the chaps from the hostel.

After dropping off my stuff, I grabbed some streetfood (fried bhaji and similar things with a rather hot sauce), ate it on the hostel terrace and then had a chat with other hosteliers. The atmosphere is very good here. The rooftop terrace has lovely plants, pool table, table tennis and a collection of tables and chairs making the place like a home made cafe. The sound of the distant traffic was normally drowned out by another guest's pleasant Indian music as we created our own atmosphere.

After a quick shower I rejoined the other inmates for a chat and glass of wine. I have now found out why India is not famous for its wine. Yeuch! I left most of the wine for my new friends to enjoy. They knew better and declined!

21,000 Fitbit steps

Next morning I was up early, packed in no time then I had a short walk to the metro, a smooth run to the airline metro and arrival at the airport (all for under £1.00). The rest is the routine airport battles through security. I had time for a final veggie biryani with sneaky chillis disguised as green beans, followed by a nice uneventful flight home to a nice roast dinner.

By travelling overnight I was able to see and do more in my limited time, but the downside was a fair bit of exhaustion at times. The stories I had heard about pickpockets and petty theft never seemed to happen and while it is important to be careful, this country seemed pretty safe to me with a lot of very nice, pleasant aiitude from most people I met. The people seemed to fall into two categories. There's a minority wanting something (tuk tuk drivers, sellers) who pester you, and the vast majority who are friendly and keen to have a discussion about anything - especially cricket!

The country is an explosion of smells, sights and noise with incredible chaos that seems to somehow work. It's an interesting example to the fact that if you don't give strict laws on driving, parking, crossing roads, etc, people are capable of working things out for themselves.

The technology is definitely succesful in India with the very clean efficient metros and even a common practice of paying street vendors with phone QR codes. But there will be a long time to go before cash is phased out, and when tuk tuk drivers charge an equitable fare!

Would I go back to India? Well, the call for Sri Lanka is stronger. In fact, I've got a great idea involving anyone else who wants to come on an adventure with me......